October veteran Jon Lester takes ball in NLCS as Cubs' fall guy

Jon Lester takes the ball in Game 1 for the Cubs. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

When Jon Lester takes the mound Saturday night for the opener of the National League Championship Series, it will mark the 14th postseason start of his career.

If you're counting at home, that's eight more than the Mets' four starters will have between them.

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If experience matters, Lester gets the obvious edge. With the best-of-seven series starting at the unfriendly confines of Citi Field, Cubs manager Joe Maddon believes the 31-year-old lefthander is the ideal man for the job.

"He's perfect for this," Maddon said. "He's been through this before. The experience he has is a soothing thing."

Pitching in the postseason is one thing. Pitching well is something else entirely.

Lester's 6-5 record doesn't look all that impressive, but his 2.66 ERA certainly does. He held the Cardinals to three runs over 7.1 innings in Game 1 of the NL division series, setting the tone for the Cubs' 3-1 series win.

In his 13 career playoff starts, Lester has allowed more than three runs only twice, one of them coming in last year's disastrous wild card loss that saw the Athletics blow a late five-run lead to the Royals.

Prior to that 7.1-inning, six-run outing, Lester had pitched to a sparking 1.97 ERA in his first 11 career postseason starts. Three of those outings came in the World Series, where he was 3-0 with a minuscule 0.43 ERA in 2007 and '13 with the Red Sox.

In other words, don't expect the raucous crowd in Flushing to intimidate the veteran lefthander.

"As a player and competitor, we all know the atmosphere's going to be there, the adrenaline, and the competitiveness as far as the other team's going to be there," Lester said. "You try to make it as a normal start; try to prepare like I would for a June 15 start against the Mets at home in Wrigley. For me, that works. That's just what makes me tick.

"Once you're out there, you're out there. You're thinking about other things. You're worried about executing pitches and trying to get guys out and get our guys back in the dugout."

Lester might take a routine approach to his starts this time of year, but that doesn't mean he doesn't appreciate the opportunity he and his teammates have during the next week.

"We're one of four teams still going. That's pretty special," Lester said. "We're in the playoffs. This is what you play for. Every year you come in first day of spring training, your manager sits there and addresses the team and your goal is to win the World Series. We're one step away from doing that."

Lester was in his second season when he won the World Series clincher for the Red Sox in 2007, having come back from a form of lymphoma the previous season. By 2013, the lefty was the anchor of the staff during Boston's next title run, starting Game 1 in all three rounds.

He's back in that Game 1 role with the Cubs after signing a six-year, $155 million deal this past winter. And he is excited not only by the prospects for this month but his entire run in Chicago.

"(General manager Theo Epstein) has got a great group of core players that can really take this team and this organization for a long time and hopefully put it on the map as far as winning year in and year out," Lester said. "Make it a Cardinals, make it a Pittsburgh, make it a Yankees, the Red Sox — the teams that are always in it every year. That's a hard thing to do in this game, to be consistent. I think he set it up for that for a long time."

Two of Lester's previous five trips to the playoffs have ended with him hoisting the World Series trophy, but he's not thinking about what a championship run in title-starved Chicago might mean to his legacy.

"Go back to '04, those guys are legends in Boston," Lester said. "Dave Roberts stole one base, and this guy hasn't paid for a meal or drink since. It's fun to think about, but we've got some games to go before we get there."